Cleverness In Pop

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Do you appreciate what I'm going to call 'cleverness' - wordplay, allusion, non-standard structures, etc. - in pop music? Is it something you look for? Who does it well?

Do you think there's an opposition between cleverness and directness (in emotional or physical impact)? Should pop be cleverer?

(Qn arising from today's Popular entry)

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I find this very difficult to answer BUT if you'd asked me five years ago I would have instantly said YES IT ARE GREAT and showed you my entire collection of David Devant memorabilia. Now I like my pop music to be fun, or gorgeous, or boshingly nasty, or vapidly catchy.

I think my shift in attitude was 50% due to the high saturation of the wrong sort of 'clever' on the London indie circuit 2003-5 where I saw that most people trying to pull off clever a) weren't b) were complete d1cks. The other 50% was that I grew up a bit and realised I wasn't cleverer than the entire world (i.e. I stopped being a student/ex-student and started the rest of my life). Plus, as the Lex says, I can't bear people like Calvin Harris shoving it my face saying 'LOOK IT'S THE 80S DO YOU SEE!!!!' I guess some memes get old very quickly.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Hahahah, yes Devant are exactly everything that doesn't work about 'clever' pop for me.